Who likes the old L1011s I think that they were the true W I D E B O D Y aircraft, I have visited MAN on several occasions and I have seen the regular ATA Manchester>Florida using the L1011s and i must say that I think they are louder than the 747. this is my oppinion and I could be wrong but what a noise. LOUD just dont come close.

Had the pleasure to train as a flight attendant with Air Transat. For those who don't know TS, TS is ther largest charter air carrier in Canada, which is, nowadays not saying very much. But more importantly the biggest operator of the Tristar.

That day was the coolest day of my life. It was sooo much fun! (It was in the final two days before "graduation") The lower galley (C-FTNC) is a pretty nest place to be in and allows attendants to gossip in peace.I did not see any ghosts while I was there... I'm sorry.(Referring to the ghosts of 401)

The smokeshow on startup makes this baby the #1 airliner in terms in showmanship. I love it !

The nose seems to remind me of a dolphin that probably explains the daily manchester-florida flight
Yeh, my house is on the LHR flight path to America & Canada and on a number of occasions when i have had the bino's out she's come over...L1011 in the new ATA colours, lovely! I also used to see 'Canada 3000 A330's' alot and Sabena A330's usually coming back from probably Dorval in the mornings.....god-bless!
EGFF

In September of this year I had the opportunity to fly on an ATA L-1011-500 military charter flight from RAF Mildenhall UK to BWI. The flight was great, the aircraft even though it was over 20 years old was very well maintained inside and out. The aircraft handled the turbulence over the Atlantic very well with the special control surfaces it had on the wings which came up all the time during turbulence to stabilize and balance the aircraft giving us a smooth ride. Loved how powerful and smooth running the three 50,000lb thrust Rolls Royce RB211s were on takeoff and the rest of the flight!

Ok,,answer this question,,,as a SFO veteran photog, when the TWA L-1011s used to POH on Runway 1R at SFO,,,they'd wait for landing traffic,,,then clearance,,,and when they power up, the "Hummmmmm" would sound(which I loved on L-1011 ) could you hear the "hummmmmmmmm" from inside the cabin..?

When I worked on the groundcrew at SFB I'd say the ATA L-1011s had something go wrong about 40% of the time. One time there was one coming to SFB from MCO and they had trouble with the engines and lavs over there, but about 3 hrs. later it was fixed and at SFB.

Well, from this pilot's perspective, the L-1011 was probably the neatest airplane that I have ever flown. First of all, the airplane was well powered with the RB-211 Rolls engines. They are a fine engine but had a habit of 'hotstarting' rather easily on hot days. The Flight Engineer always had the checklist open.

The flight deck was way ahead of its time. The aircraft that I flew, had a CRT moving map display, similar to the NDs found on modern glass flight decks today. The aircraft also had a pair of CDUs for making data entries. It was an excellent flight management system, although it didn't tie in all the parameters that todays modern aircraft does.

What made the L-1011 so unique was not its engines or the sounds that it made, but a little known design feature when flying an approach. The aircraft was designed with a system called: Direct Lift Control or DLC. When the flaps were selected to landing position, the spoilers on the wings would extend to 7 degrees up. When the aircraft was on the glideslope, the flight deck pitch angle was 7 degrees. This angle never, ever changed because of the DLC. If the aircraft was low on glideslope, either the pilot would correct by making normal 'pull up' commands on the control column or the autopilot would.....the effect was...stowing the spoilers automatically and causing increased lift on the wing...the aircraft would then tend to 'float' back up to the glide slope, but the deck pitch angle would stay the same. Conversely, if you were high on the slope, pushing the control column would raise the spoilers and decrease lift....the aircraft would descend but the pitch angle stayed the same.

Autolands on this old airplane were beautiful. In fact, there are many modern aircraft out there today that can't do the same job.

The flight deck was a typical Lockheed office. It was huge! You could have a real get together up there if you wanted to.

Yes, sad to see the era of the L-1011 go, but that aircraft has left its legacy on the modern aircraft in passenger service today.

One wonders what the passenger aircraft fleets would look like today if Lockheed had kept building them, as they were far ahead of their time.

I will always have a soft spot for the L1011. When I was a kid living the in middle east, they were the aircraft that took me home on so many occasions for vacations (BA and SV). More recently (early 90's) I've done transatlantics on them with DL, BA, and TZ. One time I went SJU - BDA - LON on BA L1011, which was interesting. I also flew TW L1011 between JFK and MIA a few times, as well as DL from MIA / TPA to ATL many times. The DL examples were looking very tired towards the end. Such a great aircraft, one of the all time greats in my opinion. I hope to have the chance to fly them again before they are all gone for good.

Now this topic attracts visitors anyway, another question; I'd really like to fly ATA L1011 one day, but it has disappeared quickly in the last months from the timetables; is there ANY scheduled ATA flight with L1011 left, apart from the Hawaii bread and butter runs?
Cancun or San Juan would be OK as I'd like to go there too.